


And the Floodgates Opened

by aphroditesdove



Series: Oneshots [1]
Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Angst, Heavy Drinking, M/M, past relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-06 02:51:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18842119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aphroditesdove/pseuds/aphroditesdove
Summary: Jack thinks he knows why Zack left him. Not that they were ever together.





	And the Floodgates Opened

**Author's Note:**

> TITLE IS FROM MOTHER TONGUE BY BRING ME THE HORIZON. A warning for vomtiting and very heavy drinking.

**_narrative_ **

It gets so bad that Jack can’t take it anymore. Every night, it’s the same thing… Flashing lights and stop signs and Zack’s voice is rattling the back of his brain, but he’s not talking to Jack. He’s talking to someone else. Jack can’t tell where he messed up or went wrong but one day, Zack decided that he had to ‘man up’. Be an adult. Whatever the fuck that means, Jack doesn’t know. But ‘manning up’ meant no more dick jokes or hand holding or spooning in hotel rooms in foreign countries.

He and Jack went from inseperable to distant. The fans start to notice - Zack starts posting a lot of pictures of himself and a cute girl from Hawaii on Instagram. Jack parties more and more until he’s sure ninety percent of his bloodstream is alcohol. 

Tonight is a no-phones, all-wine night. Jack wonders if this is what baseball stars feel like after they’ve passed their prime. A bottle of nice white wine, an apartment in L.A., and it’s absolutely meaningless because, as he sits down on his white pleather couch, he knows how lonely he is. Maybe that’s why Zack left. Because, at the end of the day, Jack realizes what he is - a lonely, wine-stained, tired-out  _ was _ . He’s burnt out, just like every other bright star. 

The bottle of wine is hardly half full. Jack’s pretty sure it’s been at least an hour, but he’s not sure because he’s feeling a lot drunker than he usually is after a few glasses of wine. Maybe it’s the sunset reflecting off of the glass coffee table or the glare from his phone screen, but Jack’s eyes start to burn and then he realizes that he’s spilled wine on his face. Absolute genius. 

He drunkenly fumbles his phone and tries to find the lifeline - Rian. Nobody can keep Jack anchored like Robert Rian Dawson… It is, however, strictly platonic. Rian picks up. Jack tries to make words come out but he can only vaguely mumble something that resembles English. The words feel heavy and awkward as he tries to explain why he called Rian at such an ungodly hour.

 

“Are you drunk?” Rian asks. Jack grunts something affirmative. “Hang on, I’ll be there in a second.” 

 

Jack ends up passing out on his couch, the bottle of wine smashed on the newly-polished tiles of his apartment. When Rian shows up, he sighs, shakes his head, and carries Jack into the bathroom, spraying him in the face with cold water. Jack starts, blinks, and then leans over and vomits into the bin. Rian makes a face.

 

“You feeling okay?” He asks. The words only kind of register in Jack’s brain as he figures out where he is. At home, in his bathroom. He recalls trying to ring Rian. The bright lights pierce Jack’s retinas and he shuts his eyes. He misses Zack. He thinks he’s crying and he can hear Rian trying to get him to stop crying, doing all his usual things of soothing words and hair ruffles and usually those would work but something is different about this one. 

Maybe it’s because they’ve known each other since they were fifteen and it’s so unlike Zack to just fuck off without warning. Maybe it’s because they’ve been in love for fourteen years and he threw it all away. Maybe it’s because Jack is pretty sure it’s his fault, even though he’s never told anyone.

The tears seem to drag the little bit of energy Jack has with them, because he’s out again and Rian goes about washing him off as best as he can and putting him to bed. As he’s trying to make sure Jack’s neck won’t snap as he sleeps, he hears him mumble something.

 

“Zack…” He trails off and starts snoring. Rian sighs again. Once he’s sure Jack will be okay, he slips out of the room and calls Zack, disregarding time zones. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t get an answer. The call goes straight to a cheery voicemail. 

 

“Hey, Zack,” Rian says. “We’ve gotta talk. Call me back when you hear this.”

 

He hangs up. 


End file.
